5 Tips on using Twitter for sales

Social media is a great way to open your business up to new clients. Way back in the olden days — pre-Internet — many businesses were limited by geography and collecting information on a customer base was a time-consuming and expensive process.

Today you can use platforms such as Twitter to not only advertise to potential buyers, but also target and research them. Those 140 characters can be an amazingly effective sales tool if wielded correctly.

Let’s take a look at what it takes to sell well on Twitter and maybe get a glimpse of how not to try generating sales.

1. Target Companies and Titles

One of the first rules of Twitter marketing is be selective. Use search functions to discover companies and people to contact directly instead of spamming all of your followers with tweets that may not be that relevant to them. Start by doing basic searches on Twitter using industry keywords. Let’s say you're interested in social media. Use Twitter’s search function to look for “Technorati social media.” The results will show you who’s writing about it, who’s researching it, and related tweets.

When you want to look for individuals in a specific position — say finance bloggers — try Google’s Twitter search. Just type in “finance blogger” and voila. Google will give you the results of everyone with “finance blogger” in their profile or updates.

With that kind of information at your fingertips you can choose who to reach out to, ensuring that your message has the best possible chance of being received well.

2. Giveaways and Coupons

Twitter giveaways are a worthwhile way to use social media to attract new customers and so easy to do, too. Say you’re a furniture store and you are doing to do a coffee table giveaway for the holidays. Have your followers retweet your giveaway message to be entered for a chance to win and create a giveaway-specific hashtag for them to use like #freecoffeetable.

Every time one of your followers retweets the giveaway message, all of their followers will see it. It’s a great way to build a following. Just be sure you make following your Twitter account a requirement for entering the giveaway. Coupons are similar. Just tweet the coupon code with a link to your site. Make the coupon code you use on Twitter unique so you can measure how many Twitter followers took you up on your coupon offer

If you’re looking to jumpstart your business’s presence on Twitter, you might want to considerpromoted tweets. These are tweets that are basically paid advertisements that will appear on targeted Twitter user timelines.

Marketers can target users by: 1) Keywords, 2) Interest, 3) Geography, and 4) Gender. Many businesses have reported seeing positive results from their promoted tweet campaigns.

4. Conversation Starter

One of the best things about social media for business is it opens up a conversation with your followers. You aren’t just mailing out direct mail postcards to a list of strangers, which usually gets pitched anyway.

You have the opportunity to actually talk to potential customers. Opening that dialogue is a great step toward building brand loyalty and earning new sales. Once you’ve started the conversation, don’t ignore it and let it fall into an awkward silence. Be responsive to your followers. Answer their questions, handle their complaints, and show them you care about meeting their needs.

5. Don’t Oversell Yourself

This is a hard one for some entrepreneurial spirits to grasp. Twitter is about making connections, not about selling to every follower with every single tweet. If you think of it like a party, how likely are you to hang out with someone who just talks about themselves?

Twitter is similar. No one wants be bombarded with 20 offers a day to buy your new book or sign up for your new service. Be selective in the timing and the content of your promotional tweets and focus a majority of your tweets on crowd-pleasing messages that don’t have anything to do with you wanting them to buy something from you.

Twitter can be a fantastic tool for driving sales, just make sure you’re using it correctly for maximum return.

Author: Courtney Gordner

Main image credit: Hubspot

Sourch: Technorati.com

[Read More...]

5 Basic Methods For Succeeding In Working From Home When Affiliate Marketing

When affiliate marketing with your own personal internet business, you may enjoy lots of benefits of working at home. Today, lots of people would like to work from home and produce money on the net avoid getting stuck in the nine-to-five job.

Working from home an internet marketer brings lots of benefits, namely you’re your own personal boss and you may manage your own personal time. Which means that you may set your hard work hours and adjust these to satisfy your personal life. The different options are additional time with the family or kids. You don’t need to drive to your job everyday. You determine the targets of exactly what you wish to make money your affiliate business, and you do it now!

Even though getting your own internet affiliate marketing business and dealing from your home has lots of benefits, working at home needs a great number of discipline and organizational skills so that you could plan your time, effort properly. There might be many distractions at your home, and also you should make sure that every day you need to do what you ought to do increase your internet affiliate marketing business.

This informative article outlines five basic tips that can be used as being a work-from-home internet marketer so that you could manage your efforts effectively and also have plenty of time to expand your online business and produce huge affiliate commissions.

1.  Set the times of day that you’ll be working everyday and stay with them. Internet affiliate marketing involves lots of work particularly when you’re still beginning to create your business. So get a telephone that you simply allocate plenty of time everyday to your job in your internet affiliate marketing business. While working from home, a lot of things could happen that may you through your work, however you must exercise lots of discipline so that you will don’t neglect your online business.

2.  Have your own personal office where one can work without the interruptions. Even though the benefit from working at home is that you could be employed in your pajamas anyway you would like, our recommendation is that you possess an office where one can organize your hard work and then be employed in tranquility without the disturbances. Running with a suitable working environment increases your productivity.

3.  Have the required tools. Obviously, to ensure success being an online entrepreneur you’ll need the specified tools. This consists of home, printer and fast connection to the internet. Should you handle your internet affiliate marketing business professionally, you’ll grow into success generating income online.

4.  Do not neglect your overall health. Most affiliate financial markets are driven to ensure success quickly. For this reason they could work extended hours throughout the day and night growing their business and begin to earn big commissions. It’s important that you should take a rest, exercise and obtain enough rest.

5.  Get a mentor and communicate with other affiliate markets. Based on your experience of online marketing, getting together with other marketers can assist you learn some suggestions which you can use growing your internet affiliate marketing business.

About The Author: Sam Nichols is a writer/blogger. He loves writing technicals and reviews for electronics. He contributes in Speckland. Find here SamNichols  Twitter profile.

[Read More...]

6 Tips Drive Targeted Visitors To Your Site

Though it is very important to produce high volumes of website visitors, it is very important for this particular traffic be targeted so that those who go to your website will likely choose the products and services you are offering on your own website.

Since promoting your site may take some effort and cash, you dont want to just somebody to view your site. Instead, you simply want individuals who could be thinking about what you may have to give you. 

This short article outlines how one can set up a regular flow of holiday makers to your site who're targeted and sure to get you sales.

1. Know your target customers and make certain that most your promotional initiatives are directed at these customers. Which means that you have to make use of all the specified keywords which define your potential prospects in your promotional initiatives. If you work with Ppc, your advert must specify the targeted customers. If you're writing and submitting articles as a means of advertising your site, your posts must include the keywords on your niche. 

2. List your site with top search engines like google and directories in categories that suited your niche. In the event your website is all about selling services or products that report to creating money online for instance, get the website listed under this category on relevant websites. Which means that people who find themselves searching for this excellent information that report to your site will locate fairly easily your site. 

3. Advertise your site in relevant forums an internet-based groups. The greater you understand about your potential prospects, the greater you should understand where to locate them. Which means you can visit the appropriate forums or online groups where your potential customers are and you may promote your website there through getting your site link in your own signature once you make posts over these forums. Individuals forums that associated with your niche are targeted customers who've high possible ways to purchase from your site.

4. Write articles rich together with your keywords. Your site content get collected and provided by many sites, e-zines and directories. You are able to therefore quickly have several thousand back-links pointing to your internet site. That many your posts have a number of key phrases in order that when individuals type these keywords on search engines like google while searching for information, your site pops up and will rank very well on these search engines like google. This drives targeted visitors to your internet site. 

5. Use your own personal e-zine and other connected e-zines to market your internet site. By publishing your own personal e-zine, you currently have many prospects who're serious about what you may have to give you. Be sure that your e-zine has new content and provides away some free report or e-books for your subscribers. Be sure that your site link is put in all of your e-zine publications. Identify other e-zines which includes a readership which matches your target sub-market and market your website within these e-zines. 

6. Research to check out other internet sites where your target customers visit and enquire about advertising your site on these web sites. 

The six tools outlined above can assist you generate targeted visitors to your site. If you wish to improve your conversion rate and improve your sales, you should have targeted prospects in your website.

[Read More...]

How to Protect your Site from Google’s Algorithmic Changes

The constant changes to how Google ranks search results means you need to take steps to protect your site from Google’s algorithmic changes. Instead of searching for quick fixes and following the latest trends, it’s best to elevate and take a long-term approach to your search engine marketing approach.

Content Really IS King

Content on your site needs to be relevant and contain your targeted keywords. The web is changing. People are over-saturated with low quality content and are now looking for highly informative, highly engaging content. Additionally, they are now becoming visual consumers and want their information and news to be delivered with lots of eye candy and multi-media. So instead of churning out lots of low quality articles or descriptions, focus on creating a few high quality pieces with a variety of media that your audience will genuinely value.

Remove Unnecessary Web Pages

When searching your site on Google click on the link that is at the bottom of the last page to see omitted search results. This can show you duplicate content you need to remove. Make sure you clean up all 404’s and if you have pages that have moved, use 301 redirects from the old pages to the new pages.

Check for Duplicate Content

Google does not like to see too much duplicate content or it can penalize your site in search results. Use CopyScape to determine if you have duplicate content indexed. Perhaps others are stealing your content or your shopping cart is creating multiple pages. If this is the case, you canonical tags in order to indicate to Google what is the primary URL for each of the pages.

Create an Account with Google’s Webmaster Tools

This will allow you to see how Google is indexing your site, set your primary URL, see 404’s and other crawling errors, etc.

Promote on Social Media

Social Engagement is now a ranking factor with Google. The engines are trending towards seeing all users as content publishers via their social channels and are tracking how a user engages with sites. Pages that are highly liked on Facebook, re-tweeted, and +1’ed will rank better. Create active social channels where you are engaging with others and encouraging others to engage with your content. In the long-term, creating active channels will help you with the popularity contest that has become SEO, and will keep your site performing well.

Check All Your Backlinks

Links to your website or web pages that have been added to questionable sites can harm the ranking of your site on Google. Use tools such as LinkDetox.com to look at your backlinks and see which ones are “toxic”. Once you’ve identified toxic backlinks, start a campaign whereby you contact those sites owners and request them to remove links to your site.

Additional Tips:

Try to keep users on your site as long as possible. Use plugins where your users are shown other relevant pages so they will read more than one page.

Establish an editorial content and publish content consistently. Try to create multimedia content at least once a month: Infographics, videos, webinars, white papers, and tutorials.

Invite contributors so you can gain content from other sources

Most importantly, stay clear from buying links, blog link networks, and other link schemes. It’s better to build slowly and surely, than to accrue penalties that can be impossible to remove. Slow and steady wins the race!

About author: Marcela De Vivo is a social media & seo consultant with Gryffin Media, focusing on topics related to Social SEO and internet marketing. She writes about tools to set up a successful internet presence, from hosting reviews to social media tools and strategies. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about your site’s marketing strategy!

[Read More...]

The 3 Steps to Setting Up a Popular and Successful Blog

There are hundreds of different formulas or paths to achieve a successful blog, but most pathways will have some basic concepts that will always remain the same. I am so sure you must have read most of it on many blogs (the most often repeated one – Original and well written content) , which is quite a necessary factor , but not the only factor. To keep it easy I have broken it down to three simple steps. This post is made for basically word press based blogs but can be applied to other websites as well.

Get Traffic and make your blog Popular

In my 10+ years of blogging, I have realised that these three factors that make up the basic recipe of any successful blog is just 3 factors as given below 

• Content ( Regularly Posted Content) 
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 
• Design (Look and structure of the blog) 

Good Content is necessary mainly to build up a regular audience that comes back to your blog repeatedly and also get your posts linked, leading to AUTO SEO for your blog. An yeah don’t forget that Google also likes good content except once in a while when their evil pandas and penguins do stuff that they are not supposed to do. People also bookmark good content which make them comeback at some part of time to your blog.

SEO is needed like every good product that needs advertising to get it noticed. Unless you seo optimize you blog, it’s unlikely that you will be found on the vast internet where millions of blogs are vying every day for every person’s attention. This is made easy by word press SEO plugins that make the job easy for you.

Design is a concept that pretty much needs no explanation. If you seen any makeover show on TV , you can get what I am trying to say , you make something look good ( like a blog – not a ugly chick) and people will come back and it will also register on their mind. Design includes the colours of your blog, structure of your blog and also the overall look of your blog. If you notice most successful blogs have a light colour (or white colour) theme.

So now that you got a good idea of why these 3 steps need to be implemented on your blog or website, I will show you how to do it the easy way and the hard way.

Content

Content can be the hardest part of these three steps to get your blog popular, just because it’s the most time consuming of these 3 steps. To make this part easier its always recommended to have a blog topic or niche that you are passionate about and like to write about. I Have never SEO researched my topics to post before blogging and I still get decent traffic for my niche, because the content is good. Get windows live writer for blogging and save content that interests you in your niche on windows live writer and finish and post it when you get time. One way to keep the regular flow of your blog posts going is to at least write four articles for your blog and keep ready to post ( which takes care of at least 4 posts for a month) and then in between when you get time and find articles that interest you and you want to blog about just add them as bonus posts to your blog in-between your this 4 posts. YOU can vary these numbers of posts to suit yourself depending how frequently you want to update your blog. This was the hard way, some easy but not as effective Ways are given below for the people who are always short on time or are just part time bloggers like me.

The easy way to get content for your blog

Get content for you blog from other people, this can be done in two ways PAID and Free

FREE content – The easy Way to get free content is to get people to do guest posts for your blog on you blog niche topic (to keep it relevant). This becomes easier the when your blog has got a higher Google rank as people will want to feed of your high Google ranking.

Nowadays you will also get many paid offers from SEO companies ( with provided content and link ) to post on your blog for a fee, which is happening even more after the GOOGLE PANDA & PENGUIN update. These sort of offers are good because they content provided is free and you get paid as well.

Hard way and Paid way to get content for your blog

PAID for CONTENT, for blog – This method involves a bit of work, mainly trial and error until you get the right person, with the use of content writing services that can be offered for a fee to you on freelance sites. You can get an article written for as low as $5 an article, but also finding a person who can write it for $5 without grammatical errors and good content is a bit of a hit and miss until you find that correct person. I Myself do article writing , so I know the time it can take to write a well written article , so if someone can do that for $5 and come up with good well written content then it’s cheap.

Some of the websites where you can source article writers for blogs are

Freelancer.com

Odesk.com

Fiverr.com

There are plenty more websites (vworker.com , guru.com, elance.com) which provide these services but I myself have not done any business with these sites so far .People can charge you from $1 an article to $25 an article on these websites, but you can get either well written article or a bad grammar article for somewhere between $2 to $10 an article. If your blog is making a decent amount of income this strategy is well worth considering to free up your time to focus on SEO and other aspects of the blog that needs some tweaking and attention.

When you compare all the three aspects mentioned, I believe content is one of the most important aspects of a blog, because good well written content will make people come back to your blog and also is the reason for you getting more natural links to your blog and therefore getting more traffic. Beginner Bloggers often overlook the importance of this factor and later on there is a lot of reverse work to be done to fix this.

SEO

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. When a website or blog is search engine optimized it is using tools and methods to rank higher within search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The easy way to get SEO for your blog is to get a theme which is seo enabled or then has a specific SEO function added in. SEO in a theme will only help you a little bit now days, as the definition of SEO today is rapidly changing, no thanks to Google’s regular updates on SEO. The other factor that is increasingly being taken in as measure of your seo value is you popularity on new popular social websites like Facebook, twitter and Goggle+.

One good strategy for improving you SEO and Traffic rapidly is to focus your energies on one thing – get links from authority sites. A website that is highly ranked in search engines results in more traffic to your website

A good way to be up-to-date with SEO for your blog is to read what’s going on in the SEO area, by reading reputed SEO blogs like SEOMOZ.com/blog, SEOJOURNAL, DAILYBLOG TIPS and also Google and BING webmaster tools blogs. If you got a Google account, a Google webmaster tools account or a Bing Webmaster tools account will also help keep you in good stead and help you keep a watch on your site to check if everything is proper and functioning as it should.

Design

Design is not only a feel good, look good factor but also helps bring in more people back to your blog, even more if the content is good as well. Who doesn’t like to be associated with a good looking person?, the same goes for a blog to a small extent. When a website looks professional and neat more clients and Viewers will be attracted to it. SEO needs a nice looking website design in order for them to both work more effectively. If a website does not appear clean and friendly customers and clients will be put off by it

One of the other important factors for good design that is often overlooked is easy navigation and structure. Your blog visitors should not get frustrated trying to find things on your blogs. A well laid out top navigation bar with appropriate sub- links under appropriate headings, a search button for your blog and Social buttons placed in optimised positions will improve the likeability of your blog as well, due to a better user experience.

Contrary to some beliefs, your blogs design could actually be responsible for your lack of traffic. Design for a blog is getting cheaper by the day thanks to heaps of new freelance sites as mentioned above. Due to these cheaper prices, Websites that provide themes have also started reducing their prices to make it more affordable an affordable word press theme.

Good design isn’t only about the aesthetics of the blog. It also affects how your website looks on all the different web browsers that people use to browse websites. The only safe way to make sure your website does well in all browsers is making your site compatible with all of them. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera – your website should be tested against each of them or at least at a minimum the most popular of browsers and how they look and render on them.

“No matter how great your blog looks, if it’s hard for your viewer to navigate your blog and find what they want, you’ve defeated your own purpose. Great design is a good marriage of form and function and usability.”

To conclude I can say there is no magic fix that your blog will become popular overnight, there are a just a few things you should get educated or get some focus on for a successful blog “I suggest learning about blogging, especially content marketing, then perhaps social media, how search engines work, and copywriting, for starters.

This is a guest post by Jeff J. You can read more from him at SheldonSingh.com.

[Read More...]

SEO Tips for Image Optimization On Any Website

Search engine optimization is the number one factor in getting your page ranked and noticed. This helps to ensure people view your website and that Google and other search engines rank it as a valuable piece of the internet. While most people know about the basics needed to optimize a page many are at a loss as to what to do about images. For a long time many web masters just left images as they were and didn’t factor them into optimization, but times are changing. Image tags, especially with the advent of image searches, can be useful for SEO purposes, if you know how to use your keywords effectively. Below you will find a few tips and tricks to properly optimizing your images.

File NamesThe file name does matter. Many people forget how important file names are when trying to optimize an image. The keyword or keywords should always appear in the file name. Rename any and all files to reflect what the picture is or what the website is associated with. For example, if you are looking to garner attention about the genetics of eye colors a picture of blue eyes should be named “blue_eyes_genetics.jpg”. This will help grab attention and allow your image to come up in image searches. When image file names are left as a simple string of numbers they will come up much lower in search engines, if at all.

Content Connection and IntegrationWhile it seems like a good idea to stuff websites full of images the images should always have some connection to the website content. If you are writing about dog breeds having pictures of sunrises and cars is not going to help you get visitors. Sure, it will gain you some quick viewers, but if you are looking to engage readers your images should be associated with your content. The image and the content must line up for search engine bots to truly crawl the site accurately. Be sure to keep in line with your content regarding the images you choose to host and you will find your site will quickly rise in the rankings. The goal is not to just gain viewers. It is to engage viewers and keep them coming back for more.

Alt TextAlt text is how search engine bots figure out what your image is about. You should make sure the alt text is a solid description of what the image is about. If you are using an image as a click through to another page you should make sure the alt text describes the page that the image links too. Strong, descriptive alt text helps search engine bots categorize your images correctly and efficiently. The better the descriptor the quicker your images will be appropriately categorized. Alt texts should contain the important information about the image. If it is a logo image the name of the company plus the word Logo will do the trick.

Overstuffing KeywordsThis tip might seem counterintuitive but it is important not to stuff the anchor text or Alt text with keywords. You want to describe the content and optimize it for your users and search engine bots. Overstuffing the file name, or anchor text with keywords will mess up the algorithm and distract search engine bots. The stuffing of keywords will also make for a difficult viewing experience for your readers. Essentially overexerting your keyword power will do the opposite of what search engine optimization is supposed to do.

Less is MoreThe final trick is another counterintuitive one; keep your images to a minimum unless you are a photography website. Sure, images look great, but the SEO gods only speak text. Alt text, file names and even Meta tags can help your images gain relevancy, but text always reigns supreme in the land of search engine optimization. Simply put your images should be an accoutrement of your site; it should not be the main star.

Armed with these tips and tricks most web master should have no problem optimizing their images in such a fashion that it will actually help their page rank. In the past images seemed unimportant to webmasters, but today images are a serious part of the equation that must be considered.

About guest blogger

Cindy Jacobson is an online freelance writer with over 10 years of experience writing for larger

advertisers on the web. Advertisers such as PrBlog, EnGadget, Verizon and many others. She

currently is writing about Att uverse coupon news within the U.S and Canada.

[Read More...]

10 Blog Post Ideas You Can Use Right Now

Stuck for an idea? Not sure how to structure your post? Use one of these handy suggestions (you might even want to print out the list and keep it near your computer).

And if you’ve got a favorite post type or template, let us know in the comments!

#1: The Beginner’s Guide to…

Even if you’ve not been blogging in your niche for very long, you can write a beginner’s guide. In fact, you’re in a great position to do so: you’ll be able to remember all the questions you had when you were just starting out.

#2: How to…

One very simple way to create a strong title is to start with the words “How to.” When you plan your post, come up with 5 – 10 steps to take readers through the process of accomplishing a particular task.

#3: 10 Tips and Tricks For…

Often, you’ll have lots of good advice that readers can pick and choose from — it doesn’t need to be followed step by step. In this case, a “tips and tricks” post works well. Come up with 10 or so strong ideas, and make sure each one can stand alone.

#4: The A-Z Guide To…

It takes some work to put together an A-Z guide … but this sort of post can make a fantastic resource for readers. You could write an A-Z guide for your whole niche (e.g. “The A-Z Guide to Blogging”) or for an aspect of your niche (e.g. “The A-Z Guide to Writing Great Content”).

#5: This [Week’s / Month’s] Best Posts On…

A round-up post is a great way to establish your expertise: it shows that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of what’s happening around the internet. By collating great recent posts (perhaps from the last week or month), you also point readers towards valuable resources.

#6: The Pros and Cons of…

Even if you have a strong personal opinion about a particular issue, you might want to present a balanced view. A “pros and cons” post can help do that — you give readers the advantages, and then the disadvantages, of a particular action/product/etc.

#7: How I …. And How You Can Too

This type of post works really well whether you’re new to your niche, or an established expert. Think of something you’ve accomplished that your readers would love to do — and tell them how you did it. Make sure you include some tips on how they can emulate your success.

#8: Seven Ways To…

This is a bit like a how-to post with a twist: you’re offering a bunch of different possible ways to do something. There’s often not a one-size-fits-all solution, so help your readers explore different ideas and encourage them to try a new technique.

#9: Review of…

Whatever niche you’re in, there’ll be books, products, services, and even other blogs that you can review. If there’s a major book or product coming out, get your hands on it as soon as you can (you might even ask the publisher for an advance copy) and let your readers know what you thought.

#10: What 5 Experts Say About…

Perhaps you know your readers want a post about a particular topic — but you don’t feel you know enough to write that post. Instead of trying to come up with the content yourself, look at blogs, books, or articles to see what experts in your field have said. (Make sure you attribute each quote.)

Do you have a favorite post type from the ones above… or a different idea to suggest? Let us know in the comments!

Bio: Ali Luke writes a regular column for DailyBlogTips. She will be leadingblogging courses in London from September. If you’d like to learn more about blogging, with hands-on exercises and one-to-one support as part of a small group, then book your place today.

[Read More...]

Create Custom Permalinks for Blogger Posts

I discovered a lovely surprise when logging into Blogger to create a post this morning: the ability to create custom permalinks for posts!

Usually when we create a post, the URL generated for the item page is based on the post title. By creating a custom URL we can use a different structure which can help posts rank higher in search engines, as well as being more user-friendly.

How Post Permalinks Work

When we create a post in Blogger, the URL where the post page will be located automatically follows this formula:

http://[Blog-Homepage-URL]/YYYY/MM/[Short-version-of-title].html

When writing long post titles, we often find the title of the post is truncated in the URL, cutting off the ends of words. Often we may want to use a shorter, snappier URL structure using related words which could help our posts rank higher in search results.

Now we are able to select a custom string for the URLs of our posts, replacing [Short-version-of-title] with any text we prefer.

To try this out for yourself, log into your Blogger dashboard and choose to create a new post.

In the pane on the right of the post editing page, you will see a new section called "Permalink" which features a "hyperlink" icon to the left. Click on this title to reveal the menu.

By default, the Permalink choice will be set to "Automatic URL" - this is the URL structure based on the post title of your post. If you check "Custom URL" you can type an alternative URL: 

The Custom URL string can only include letters, numbers and certain special characters [-_.]. Slashes are not acceptable.

As we type, the new URL where the post will be located once published updates in the space above so you can easily see the changes.

To give you an example, take a look at the differences between the title of this post and the URL of the permalink page. It's only a slight difference admittedly, but enables me to create a more descriptive title and shorter URL with ease. 

Unfortunately, we can only change the final section of the custom URL, so permalinks will still include the date format (making them around eight characters longer than is optimal). But if you really want to create short URLs it's always possible to create custom redirects to individual posts in your blog settings.

Note: This feature may not yet be available for all blogs, though I imagine the update will be rolled out for everyone in the coming days. 

Please let us know in the comments below if custom permalinks are available for your blogs, and whether you find this new feature useful!

Author: Amanda Kennedy
Amanda is a professional blogger and web designer living in Sheffield, United Kingdom.
In addition to curating Blogger Buster, you can find Amanda on Twitter, Facebook or add her to your circle on Google+.

[Read More...]

Choosing a Niche for Your Website

Choosing the niche, the very core topic of your website is an important step, since you’ll be stuck with it and if you don’t choose wisely you’ll soon abandon what you doing because of the simple fact you’ll not enjoying it. You have to be prepared to work for a year or two without, or with very little, financial compensation. Only handful people can do that. Are you one of them?

Brainstorming

If you want to create and manage a website, to become a webmaster, you’ll have to find your true passion and spend a great amount of time and energy in creating a good content, promoting your website and be prepared to learn something new every single day.

99% of the people, who try to make money online by running a website, they fail. There is no “get rich quick” scheme. Creating and especially managing a website is a long learning process and if you don’t enjoy it you’ll certainly fail. For that reason finding a niche that will keep you “alive” for several years is a must do.

So grab a pencil and a piece of paper and brainstorm some ideas about your new website. Ask yourself the following questions:

What I usually enjoy when I have a conversation with my friends and family?

In which field I’m considered as an expert?

What do I like to read the most?

What do I watch on TV the most?

What can get hold of my attention for a very long time?

Simply what is the true passion in my life?

Research

Now you certainly have some general ideas about what you want to do on Internet. Now fire up your browser and do some research about your “ideas”. You’ll be amazed of the fact that almost nothing is “new” on Internet. Whatever you think off, there is someone else who is already doing that. There is someone else who is already running a website based on your “ideas”. Whatever you think off, there will be a dozens of websites with the same “idea” behind. A truly great idea comes once in a trillion. Often that is a new technology employed by a group of people finding its way through the vast see of goods and services on the web (examples: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc.)

So what we are going to do about that. Nothing. There is a room for everyone. If you’’re good enough you’ll find your way.

Narrowing

So far so good, you have some ideas, you did your research on Internet and you narrowed your choice on two-three topics you are passionate about. That’s good but you have to be aware of one more thing. If you choose some broad, general topic (example: writing about “life”), you’ll lose the focus, you’ll face fierce competition, your site will be full of seemingly disconnected articles and probably you’ll have a hard time ranking well at search engines.

However if you narrow your niche to much (example: writing about “Australian cat grooming products”), you’ll have a very few people interested in this topic, thus a very small number of people searching for it on the web. Also you’ll probably run out of content very soon. Simply there is not much out there to write about it.

Profitability

It’s always good to check if the niche is profitable or not. For example the niche “insurance” is one of the most profitable niches out there, but in turn it’s very competitive. Google AdWords Tool is the best destination to check if the main keywords for your niche are profitable or not. Also you can check if they’re competitive or not and how many people are searching for them on a monthly basis.

Playing with the this tool will roughly tell you if you’re going to make some serious money in future and how much competition you’ll have to face along the way. For example the keywords related to “insurance” cost around $15 per click. That means if you decide to advertise your website with those keywords, you’ll have to pay a lot of money.

But, that also means if you place an AdSense ads on your “insurance” website you’ll earn good amount of money with every single click. However as I said it’s a very competitive niche and probably you’ll not make your site prominent and often visited, thus you’ll not earn much money from it, unless you’re genius in that field.

Wrap Up

Choose your niche wisely. Make sure it’s not too much competitive, that you have enough inspiration for it, it can bring fair amount of money, and the most important part, make sure you really enjoy the process of writing or creating the content for it.

Vlatko is the owner of Keen Talks. Visit his website to see talks, lectures and interviews with insightful people.

[Read More...]

Easiest way to create floating share button

Some of you asked me on how to make a floating share button which slide in left or right side of website . It's very simple and easy . In this post ,I will show you how to do this with addthis.com service.

1. Go to Addthis.com

2. Click on Get the code at the top navigation bar

3. In style section ,choose the style that I marked circle

4. Copy the code in the right

5. Go to Dashboard - > Template ->Edit HTML .
Paste the code at the end of template ,right before </body>

6. Save changes.

Now you can go back and check the result

[Read More...]

Some Basic Principles and Techniques for Web Site Design

This is guest post by Brianne Walter on basic principles and techniques for web design . It's also helpful for you who want to make a custom template for blog.

The principles and the techniques are essential for any design. Therefore, in this case, the website design is no exception. For a good website designing, you will need to apply the principles and techniques in a wise manner. Therefore, you will need to know about these elements and its functions. Therefore, some principles and techniques are discussed for your need.

Layout

The layout of a website can create its aesthetic meaning to the visitors. Therefore, it is very much important to use the composition of the page in the subtle manner. How you will design, the website's page is a vital concern for making the stunning layout. Therefore, for achieving the success of the layout, you have to apply the grid technique in the layout segment. Particularly, the rules of third should be used to make a stunning compositionfor the website layout. For good layout, you have to consider putting some surprises in the design, so that the visitors can stay on the website page for a long time.

Color

The color for any website design is an important element. So, the color should be used in the website design in intelligent way. Remember color can make or break the consistency of the website layout. Before using color in the website page, you have to study the color harmony in deeply. So, that there will be no scope for error for color placing on the website layout.

Typography

Before using the typography on the website, you have to know the aesthetic sense of the fonts. The reason is that if you use the right font for the website design, then you will make it more user-friendly for the visitors. The exact typography for the website design is vital for the eyes, because, the wrong fonts can damage the viewing angle of the monitor screen.

Navigation

When you are going to design the website, you should remember that navigation in the website should be user-friendly which means the visitors can access the website without any trouble. Moreover, you have to use your intuition in advance, about where the movement of the visitors' eyes will be on the web page.

Usability

When you are designing the website, you should think about the visitor's mind. In advance, you have to realize that what the visitors will do when they make a visit on the website and you have to think about what the visitors will do on the website.

Clarity

The clarity of the website design depends on the pixel usage. So, how you will use the pixels in the websitelayout which will determine the crisp and the sharpness of it on the monitor screen. Moreover, the edges of the pictures or fonts should be clear as well as looking great on the monitor screen also.

Consistency

Always, remember that the website design should have consistency in all segments of the layout, because, the consistency in every aspect of the website will determine its success. Generally, consistency means making everything match like font, spacing, heading sizes .Etc.

Therefore, the website design requires the principles and techniques to build a good-looking website for the visitors.

About guest blogger

Brianne Walter is a freelance blogger who is passionate about writing. She frequently writes on SEO, marketing, design and social media related topics. Her favorite sites are ecofriend and style guru, which she also happens to work for.

[Read More...]

10 Tips to Write Effective and Popular Post

One popular post can bring you more traffic and links than a number of usual posts. Writing these popular posts require lot of hard work and a bit of luck. Planning is the key ingredient without which even well a written posts may become flop. Following are 10 all-round tips which will help you write your posts in a more effective and impressive manner. 

1. Research other popular posts

Do some homework before writing your blog post. Learning from other popular blogs who already own big audience is a great and easy way to deliver compelling content. . You can learn a lot by researching the most popular posts. By studying top posts from different blogs, you can notice few common elements. You can come across posts that have controversy, passion, providing rich resources, valid information become more popular than usual posts. 

2. Structure of your post

There are some proven structures that constantly do better than others. For example, "How to", Lists like "10 effective Tips", why" posts are proven post formats and attracts more readers. Posts with bolded subheadings, bullets are easy to capture readers’ attention.

3. Make sure to take time to refine your content

It is important to take adequate time to craft your content. This helps to refine, format your post. Proper formatting is as vital as your content. If you want to make your post stand out from others, ensure to spend more time in crafting it than the average post out there. People are searching for information and will spend time in reading your post only if it offers something meaningful. Ensure to offer valuable information. 

4. Use your best idea

Don’t write about everything and anything. If you want to stand out from others, you should able to distinguish yourself from others. Writing unique, expert posts is the only way to grab readers’ attention. If you have writers block, then trending topics come in handy. Use trending topics in your niche. Everyone wants to search hot topics. Using trending topics is a great way to grab attention of the readers.

5. Create a captivating title

Title or headline of your post can make or break your post. It should grab the attention of the reader. Making compelling title makes the visitor to read the article.

Ensure to spend extra time in crafting your post's title. Your title should contain keywords, simple yet effective. It should reflect the content of your post.

6. Ensure to make your post looks good

Adding images, videos and formatting is vital. It should be a visual treat that draws readers in. Investing some time into this aspect will definitely make your post stand out. While using images make sure that the quality is always high. Use Stock Photos services like 123RF , iStockPhoto or ShutterStock to find images for your posts. 

7. Encourage readers to share your post

Bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Pinterest helps to achieve this. Social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ also come handy in spreading your post. Websites like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and Linkedin should also be put to use while getting your word around.

8. Have a great first paragraph

You should inform your reader about what the post is all about and a little bit peep into the post. Make sure its short and conveys the message effectively. Linking to other information also give added advantage. Make this portion rich with keywords related to the post as normally this portion is taken into by consideration by many search engine to display the results. 

9. Ensure to write error free content

You will attract more hits if you make your post free of any spelling or grammatical error. Posts full of language error will divert the readers attention from the content of the post to the spellings and the language. This will also create a doubt in the readers mind about the skills of the author and may as well create a inhibition in readers mind to read any future posts. 

10. Brainstorm Keywords

In order to become popular post, your post should focus on what people are searching for in the particular niche. Focus on keywords that will help you get high rank in search result. Make sure to only include keywords that are related to the content of the post. Unnecessarily including unrelated keywords will only lower your reputation in the eyes of the search engines further lowering your ranking as a whole.

Creating quality and valuable content makes your post stand out from others. 

Author Bio

This is a Guest Post by Rajkumar Jonnala who wishes to research and find out more on desk cable management operations. His field of interest spans across wider domains and business areas. His past work experience in cable cover and cable floor cover process helps him to share the real life knowledge to his friends and readers of his blogs.

[Read More...]

How to Structure Your Posts and Why You Need To

Do your posts seem to be a loose collection of ideas, in no particular order?

When I’m coaching bloggers, one common problem that comes up is a lack of structure. During the drafting process, many writers simply sit down and type whatever comes into their head. That’s fine for a warm-up … but it’s not a very efficient way to create a blog post.

Think of structure as the underlying framework for your posts. With a strong frame in place, your post won’t sag in the middle or have bits falling off at the edges: it’ll be easy for you to create, and easy for your readers to take in.

How to Structure Your Posts

Every post needs three key elements:

• Introduction – this hooks the reader and introduces the topic
• Main body – this explores the topic, often with subsections or several bullet points
• Conclusion – this rounds off the post and gives a call to action

When you edit your next blog post, check that your introduction is present, and that it does a good job of hooking the reader. (If you’ve written a list post, for instance, don’t just jump straight in with the first item – give the reader some context for the list, so they have a reason to read it.)

Check, too, that you have a conclusion: bloggers often leave this off.Your conclusion doesn’t need to repeat everything you’ve said in the post, but it does need to make the post feel complete. You could end by encouraging people to try out an idea from the post, or by asking them to leave comments about their own experiences.

The main body of your post is the section that needs careful structuring. Some simple ways to do this are:

• Use subheadings to split the post into sections of roughly equal length
• Use numbered items to create a list post
• Use numbered steps to create a “how to” post
• Use paragraphs that build up towards a particular point

As you’re planning your post, think about what subheadings or list items you might use, and try writing them in different orders to see what makes the most sense for you and for your audience.

And if you get stuck … try looking at posts on some of your favourite blogs. See how they’re put together: look at the introduction, the conclusion, and the main body of the post. You could use that framework for a post of your own.

If you have any good tips on structure, or any questions, just pop a comment below.

Author: Ali Luke. If you’d like to take your writing or blogging further, join her weekly newsletter,

[Read More...]

Use hyperlink tags as a right way for seo

Hyperlinks is the core of internet, then if you use them as a right way, they will help you improving your blog SEO very fast.

1. ADD RIGHT ATTRIBUTES

Structure of a hyperlink tag is as below:

<a href="http://bloggeritems.com" rel="follow" target="_blank" title="Title of the link">Link content</a>

• href: this attribute contain the URL of the page that the link is targeting. Remember: shorter is better.
• rel: this attribute show the relation ship between the current page with the target page. If the target is a label page, please use rel="tag". You can also userel="nofollow" if you don't like Search Engine Bot jumping to index the target page. Use this right will help Search Engine navigate your blog easy and help to your blog SEO. Read more about rel attribute.
• target: I usually use target="_blank" when the target page is not same domain with my blog. This will help your reader can open a new link but still not leave your blog.
• title: this attribute is really important in SEO tips. I usually input it as the title of the target page.
• Link content: this is what the thing will show for readers to click. Remember: text is better than anything (like: image, button, ...). And this is the most important attribute in SEO tips for a link, it must tell exactly the target page content as summary.

2. TRY TO WRITE GOOD LINK CONTENT

Best practices:

• Choose words for link content: use simple words to make an easy understand sentence. PLEASE AVOID:

1. Use some sentences like: "click here", "read me", "click this text", .v.v..
2. Use some abbreviations or some sentences that's difficult to understand or not relate with the target page content.
3. Use URL for link content. Example, if you link to"http://www.blogspotskill.blogspot.com" and you also use "http://www.blogspotskill.blogspot.com" in link content.

• Do not write too long: write a paragraph in link content is a bad idea.
• Need make your link different style with normal content: This will help your readers know where are links, where are text, and they will not miss the links or not click as an accident.
• Do not spam. Add too many keywords in your link content or use too many links in a post is also a bad SEO experience. May be Google can also kick your blog out of search result if you spammed like this.

Dear my readers, have a nice day with SEO!

[Read More...]